Battle of Ia Drang

The Battle of Ia Drang was a major battle of the Vietnam War which occurred on 14-18 November 1965.

Despite the heavy losses suffered at the Siege of Plei Me, the North Vietnamese general Chu Huy Man was eager for another confrontation with the Americans. Reinforcements streamed down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to prepare for another battle against the Americans. On the morning of 14 November 1965, 1st Cavalry helicopters belonging to the 1st Battalion of the 7th Regiment flew west along the Ia Drang towards the Chu Pong Massif. Their commander, Lt. Col. Hal Moore, was told of a large enemy base camp on the massif's slopes, and he was to take his 29 officers and 411 troops to find the enemy and kill them. 8 choppers landed at the clearing closest to the mountain, LZ X-Ray, and Moore led his men from the front, being the first man off the first chopper. He sent four 6-man squads 100 yards in every direction, and they captured a Viet Cong deserter within minutes. The deserter warned them that there were 1,600 men guarding the mountains, and Moore quickly set up a command post behind a huge termite mound at the clearing. At mid-afternoon, all of his men were ferried in, and he sought to attack the NVA before they could be attacked. Moore sent two companies up the slope, and the North Vietnamese (who really numbered 3,000 troops), led by Lieutenant Lo Khac Tam, fixed bayonets and charged downhill. Within minutes, the Americans were attacked by hundreds of NVA troops. One lieutenant led 28 men too far away from his company, and the lieutenant was killed, as was the sergeant who took his place; only 7 of the trapped platoon's men survived to fight. Moore now fought in three simultaneous struggles: defend the LZ, attack the NVA, and rescue his trapped patrol. On the morning of 15 November, the NVA launched a massive assault with hundreds of camouflages soldiers (described as "little trees" by one American soldier), blowing whistles and screaming. The Americans had strong soldiers and air and artillery support, and each of Moore's units marked their positions with smoke to identify their positions and avoid friendly fire. 18,000 artillery shells were called in over the course of the battle, some of them landing just 25 yards from the US troops; helicopter gunships fired 3,000 rockets against the North Vietnamese. Soon, almost every plane available in South Vietnam was called in, holding back the North Vietnamese with powerful air support. By 10:00 AM that morning, the North Vietnamese assault had been beaten off, and the survivors of the trapped platoon had been rescued. The next day, the NVA launched an assault against the same sector of Moore's line four more times, but were obliterated by artillery and machine-gun fire. The surviving NVA and VC withdrew into the forest, leaving behind 634 corpses. After three days and two nights of combat, the American survivors were airlifted out, and the dead were gathered. 79 of Moore's men died, while another 121 were wounded. Moore refused to leave until every man in his command was accounted for, and he was the last man to leave X-Ray. The Americans considered the battle a victory, as they had a kill ratio of 10:1 A few days later, near Landing Zone Albany, the NVA got too close to the US battalion for US artillery support to be called in. Out of 425 Americans involved, 155 were killed and 124 wounded. Both sides claimed victory, and Ia Drang was the battle which convinced Ho Chi Minh that the war was winnable, as the US military had suffered heavy losses.